By default, Netgear’s Arlo Pro camera system comes with several different modes that you can switch between, depending on whether you’re home or away. However, you may want to customize the settings for different modes. Here’s how to create your own modes in the Arlo app.

There are four default modes available: Armed, Disarmed, Schedule, and Geofencing. Unfortunately, none of these modes allow the camera to record motion without receiving alerts all the time. You can edit the default modes to do this, but you may want the ability to easily switch back and forth between receiving alerts and not receiving them. This is where creating your own custom mode comes in handy.

To start, open up the Arlo app and tap on the “Mode” tab at the bottom.

Select your Arlo base station under “My Devices”.

From here, you can tap the pencil to edit an existing mode, or tap on “Add a Mode” to create a new one. We’re going to create a new one for this tutorial.

Type in a name for your new mode and then hit “Next” in the top-right corner of the screen.

Next, select the camera(s) that you want to include with this new mode and hit “Next”.

On the next screen, select how you want the camera(s) to activate, either selecting “When motion is detected” or “When audio is detected”. You can also select both.

Next, adjust the motion sensitivity using the slider and hit “Next” when you’re done.

Hit “Next” again.

On the next screen, select what you want the camera(s) to do, as well as whether or not you want the siren to sound. Hit “Next”.

Next, select how long you want the camera(s) to record, either recording until the motion stops or recording for a fixed amount of time. Hit “Next”.

Select how you want to receive alerts, either through push notifications or email (or both). You can also choose not to receive alerts at all by de-selecting each option.

The final screen will show an overview of the mode’s settings. Hit “Save” if everything looks good.

Your new custom mode will appear at the bottom of the list. Select it to enable it.

From there, you can switch between modes whenever you want, depending on whether you want the cameras to record or not.

Craig LloydCraig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read Full Bio »